Champagne Room wants to make you dance

Champagne Room's lead singer Shelby Thibodeaux performs an almost non-stop mix of Motown, R&B, Funk, and Hip Hop covers to get people on the dance floor at Madison's. Valentino Mauricio/cat5

There have been a ton of interesting event invitations on my Facebook news feed lately.

Live music at this bar, homemade jewelry and crafts at this club, dub-stepping or salsa dancing on this street…

It can be intimidating trying to choose what you want to do on a Saturday night.

Sometimes it’s just best to follow the crowd.

Local band transplants Champagne Room are one of those bands that people cannot stop talking about. At a recent gig at Madison’s, the place was packed from floor to rafters with people.

The band, which usually performs covers from every decade and genre, were dressed in matching black collared shirts and ties.

It didn’t matter if lead singer Shelby Thibodeaux was belting out “Hey Ya!” or keeping it smooth during a rendition of “Sexual Healing,” it was as if a spell had been cast on the crowd.

This is no run-of-the-mill cover band belting out cheesy 80s jams in makeup and torn blue jeans.

Quite the opposite, actually.

I got a chance to catch up with Caylan Daughrity and learn how the guys in Champagne Room choose the best songs to get people up and dancing.

Q I was able to catch a bit of your set at Madison’s last Saturday night. There were a ton of people there! Are your shows usually packed?
A The shows have been getting bigger each time. That was definitely the best show we have had in Beaumont so far. Hopefully people will continue to come out!

Q What kind of music do you usually play?
A We play a pretty wide range of music. In our set you’ll hear Stevie Wonder, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Cee Lo Green, Dr. Dre, Outkast, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Ginuwine — all kinds of things. We say we’re old school Motown, R&B, funk, disco and old school hip-hop. We like to play songs that make people want to dance.

Q I know that a few of your members are in other local bands. What made you come together to make Champagne Room?
A Most of us play in the band The Kinship, a local rock band. We had all talked about wanting to do some type of a funk-band project and when we came across Carl Richardson (bass guitar/vocals), we knew that we had all the pieces to put it together.

Q What’s the story behind your name? It reminds me of that comedy bit by Chris Rock “No Sex in the Champagne Room.”
A It’s so hard to pick a name… I’m sure that somehow that bit had an influence on the name. Shelbone (vocals) came up with the name, and everybody just kind of said “Yeah, that’ll work.”

Q Do you guys usually coordinate outfits? Do you try to bring a unique style and presence to the stage?
A Yes, we try to coordinate our stage look. We talked about it when we first put the band together and said that we want to have a “look” for the band, kind of like what you might find backing a Motown artist. So it was something that was planned ahead of time. We wanted to look different than the norm, but just different enough to make us stand out.

Q What instruments are played in your band?
A We have Jay Stauffer on the keyboard/synthesizer/organ. Carl Richardson is on bass guitar & vocals, Chris Webb is on drums, Dave Macha is on guitar, myself on guitar/vocals/auxiliary percussion and Shelbone on vocals/auxiliary percussion.

From time to time we have guest musicians who sit in with the band. So far we’ve had a slide trombone player in Chris Brinkmeyer and tenor sax with Vince Lawrence. What sets us apart from many dance bands is that all of the sound that you hear is being made on the stage — we don’t play along to programmed tracks.

Q What do you think about the local music scene? Has it grown or evolved in

Valentino Mauricio/cat5

the last few years?
A It’s hard to say about the local music scene. It seems like years ago that there were more places for bands to play, but there are a ton of great bands in the area right now. On the original scene there are a lot of younger bands that are doing some really cool stuff.

Q Who would you say is your average fan?
A Another difficult one. When you stand on stage and look out, you see a wide variety of people — early 20’s and up. I think because we play such a wide variety of music that we appeal to a large segment of people. But it’s cool to see everybody getting along and just having a good time, that’s what we are all about.

Q Do you have any plans to release music or do you see yourself as a mostly live jam band?
A It would be nice to release some music at some point. We’ve talked about it and everybody is game for it, it’s just a matter of finding time to write material. But we definitely love to do the live shows!